What kind of player was Maurice Taylor?

I would be baffled if I ran into someone suggesting Mo and Chuck were similar players.

Taylor was a fairly skilled SF in the body of a PF....sort of like a clutchless Robert Horry minus the slashing ability of his early days. Didn't like to bang, feet seemed to get heavier on defense, but Rudy liked him like he did any finesse PF that could hit jumpers with range.

He would have been fine....but when he blew his Achilles, his poor work ethic and discipline led to him gaining a ton of weight that he never could lose. First step gone, lift gone, moves gone. He became over-reliant on the jump shot and didn't even bother trying to get inside for boards.

 

He was unstoppable when he was eating.

 

One of the top post scorers in the league, who could not rebound, block, steal, defend, and most importantly lacked the stamina to be a huge scorer.

 

I have a bobblehead of Maurice Taylor, I kind of liked him cause he and I share the same name. Other than that, he had a nice jumper but didn't really have much of an impact on defense.

 

Mo could ball. But, he didn't. He was all but unstoppable one-on-one, but of course the world stood still as he took @10 seconds to get his shot up (and in, usually). Did he even average 1RB/game?

MoT was 'stro without the hps, or heart.

The question to me was always why Rudy was so enamored w/the guy?

 

very accurate recollection.

Mo Taylor sure likes playing pick up basketball more than nba ball.

 

IMO, he was still a decent player after the Achilles injury, people forget he was the reason we had a chance to win Game 1 vs. the Lakers in the '04 playoffs, he kept us in the game, scoring like 8 pts in a row down the stretch.

When he was a free agent from the Clippers back in 2000, he was rumored to go to the Magic with TMac since they couldn't secure Duncan, instead he choose us with a 1 year deal to get his Bird Rights, and we signed him to a a little more than mid level exception the following year, which some NBA execs thought it was a "wink,wink" deal because of the Joe Smith fall out with the Wolves

he was a skilled jump shooter, Rudy loved to get him going in the first quarter to establish the little inside game we had with Mobley/Francis. He never did like to bang inside hence the low rebound average, but as you saw, he went to hoop strong at times although he had the same tomahawk throwdown dunk in that highlight mix.

I remember when he had him along with KT and Griffin, if only we could've had all 3 skills together, we would've had the perfect PF.

 

Maurice Taylor would have been a beast if he would have had Chuck Haye's determination and work ethic. Taylor pobably would have been a great player if he would have hustled on the court like Chuck does now.